Tales of the Lost
by Aaiero
Summary: A oneshot series of tragic ends that could have occured. The characters will change in every passage.
1. Lie to Me

**Author Note: **This is the first part of a series of oneshots envolving the tragic end of many characters. I never thought I would ever do anything like this. I hate it when people write about people dying, especially if its about the people of Avatar. You have no idea how hard this chapter was to write, because he's my favorite character. Hope it came out good anyway. Oh and they won't always be in first perspective.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and thank God this didn't actually happen in the series!

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I wrapped my arms around his body and pulled him closer, pressing my forehead into his bald head.

Wind blew and my hair, loose and long, covered us like a blanket, but I knew that I'd never feel warmth again.

I'll never smile, never laugh, never see, never hear, never feel, never…

The world was ending.

My world was ending.

And his world was long gone, stolen unfairly.

A choked sob escaped my throat, and I took a breath of his fading scent.

How desperately I wanted him to awaken and say he was ok, that I shouldn't worry, to ask to go penguin sledding.

Painful memories of him burned my mind and tears fell from my closed eyes.

All I could see was him.

All I could hear was his laughter.

All I could feel was his icy cold skin under my finger, his clothes that were ripped, his open ghastly wound, his newly formed muscles…

But I didn't feel his breathing; the gentle fall and rise that should always be.

"Katara… Katara, you did your best. I-It… you can't do anything. You can't bring the dead back to life, Katara."

My head sprung up, daring the speaker to interrupt my thoughts, to ruin my memories.

Sokka.

His voice was horse, his blue eyes were red around the rim, and I realized he too had cried when my healing had failed.

He glanced down at the body lying still in my arms.

"It's over… He's gone…"

My heart clenched at his words and my stomach felt as if it fell hundreds of feet and crashed on jagged rocks.

I held his body closer and tighter, knowing if he were awake he would've yelped at my grip.

Narrowing my eyes, I challenged Sokka at his accusation.

"No!" I managed to scream through my parched throat, sobbing all the harder. "No, he's not… he's not dead! Don't' you dare say that!"

Sokka's eyes softened and the corners of his lips rose in a sad smile.

Then he did the unthinkable.

Sokka took him.

Sokka and the earth king, Kuei, helped pull him into the saddle and I saw Toph, thin rivers flowing down her porcelain cheeks as she stared blindly into the sky.

I tried to grab his limp arm, tried to keep him close, but my body didn't obey my commands.

I could only cry more, covering my face in my hands, sitting against Appa's neck, pulling my knees to my chest, and cry.

Sokka's voice was like a buzzing bee as he tried to comfort me.

"Katara, there's nothing you can do. He's… he's..."

I suddenly felt the extreme urge to let myself go, to roll off the side of his sky bison's head, to fall through the sky he loved, to end my life.

But Sokka held a firm grip on my shoulder as if reading my thoughts.

"He's gonna wake up. He's gonna be fine…" I lied to myself.

I climbed slowly into the saddle to escape the temptation of jumping.

Sokka immediately enwrapped me in a tight hug, but I hardly felt his touch.

After all, I would never feel anything ever again.

"T-Tell me he's gonna wake up. Tell me he's fine. Tell me he isn't..." I whispered, demanding to see the happy ending I knew didn't exist, asking for more lies.

Sokka's breathing hooked for a second when he realized my desperation; then in a steady voice he spoke the truth and my world spiraled downwards.

"Aang is dead."


	2. Pulled Under

**Author Note: **Wow, this was even harder to write than the last one. Hopefully this is clear to understand. Read, reply, and enjoy! Oh and don't get too depressed like I am when I write this series.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender

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"Toph, come on! It's just ice."

Just ice, but it is so different; so impossibly, unexplainably different.

How would he know?

He would never understand, no one would ever understand, and I was used to this.

But there was a frantic tone in his voice, a panic under wraps.

Even though I would love to poke fun at Snozzles, I knew something was wrong.

I heard the thrashing in the water, but what it could be, I had no idea.

They forgot I was blind, again.

The violent splashing of water sounded closer, I needed to move, no time to be a wimp.

Taking a deep breath, I picked up my foot, vibrations suddenly leaving and my world became a strange, terrifying place where I felt like the helpless blind girl my parents portrayed me as.

I heard cracking, shouting, screeching.

Terrible screeching that sounded so out of this world.

Too many sounds, I wanted to cover my sensitive ears.

I wanted to stay on my element, the only place I felt like me.

I stuck my foot out father and my heart quickened, my stomach heaved, and I felt like I was falling.

I hated leaving the ground.  
Another deep breath.

Just ice.

He said it was just ice.

I placed my foot down and it gently hit something cold and hard.

It felt unreal, as if I were floating in air, falling.

I had no sense of direction, no sense of anything.

When I stepped onto the ice, for once, the world was truly dark.

I took my foot back as if it touched fire, which it might as well have been.

Vibrations pounded the earth and I could see, my body settled, and I felt confident again.

I felt like me.

"Actually… I'm gonna stay on my little island where I can see." I put my hands to my mouth and shouted back to where I thought Sokka was.

Boom.

The earth shattered un-expectantly behind me, pushing me forward as I let out a shriek.

My feet were on ice, and I felt paralyzed.

I could hardly think.  
Could hardly breathe.

The screeching again, the thrashing.

It destroyed my earth and it could destroy me too.

I put my hands out to my side, trying to steady myself.

For the first time in my life, I felt blind.

Shuffle.

One foot then the other.

"Ok, I'm coming!"

My voice sounded so small, and I hated sounding like I needed help.  
I hated sounding weak.

Shuffle.

Breathe.

Shuffle.

Ignore the sound in the water.

Shuffle.

Keep moving.

Shuffle.

_You're the greatest earthbender in the world, why should something like ice scare you?_

Shuffle.

"You're doing great! Just follow the sound of my voice."

Shuffle.

My heart quickened and a bead of sweat dripped from my forehead.

"It's hard to ignore."

Shuffle.

He offered a distraction.

Shuffle.

An image of Snozzles' face appeared in my mind's eye, a frown from being teased, his eyebrows knitted as he tried to create a comeback, it forced a small smile onto my face.

Of course I had no idea what he might actually look like, no idea what anything looked like.

His voice shook me from my self-pitying.

"You're almost there!"

Almost?

Already it felt like I had been walking for years.

Crash.

The ice suddenly gave out beneath my feet.

I gave a scream as I plunged into the cold water.

It swallowed me, getting in my eyes, my nose, my mouth.

I tried to keep my arms above my head.

My legs kicked frantically, searching for solid ground to stand on but finding nothing.

"Help, I can't swim!"

I felt my self sinking, and I kicked even harder, my arms recklessly trying to find something to hold on to.

"I'm comin' Toph!"

My world slowed down for just a moment.

Snozzles… no, Sokka was coming.  
He would save me.

The cold pit of fear in my stomach left, and I felt comforted even though the water rushed over my head.

Sokka was coming.

I closed my non-seeing eyes and held my breath.

I only had to wait a few minutes, then Sokka would save me.

_You're waiting for him to save you? You're the world's greatest earthbender. You don't need help._

The water turned colder, my lungs began to burn.

Why hasn't he come yet? Was I far from where he stood safe?

Didn't he say I was almost there?

_You don't need help, Toph. Just save yourself._

I tried to kick hard, but my leg only seemed to float gently in the water, the temperature ever dropping.

_You don't need help._

No, I didn't need Sokka to come save me. I wasn't a damsel in distress; that was Sugar Queen's job. I could save myself.

I pushed my arms down, I tried to call the earth to help me, but I was out of my element.

Maybe… maybe, this was what it felt like to be helpless, to need someone to save you.

Shivering, I felt all remaining air drive out of my lungs.  
And suddenly, I didn't feel the water around me.

I felt detached.

My world was crashing around me, I felt cold, I felt warm, which was up, which was down.

Sokka though, he said he would save me.

No more air.

I tried to take a breath, and water filled my lungs.  
Sinking faster, I still had no fear, though I knew I was in my final seconds.

I felt strangely peaceful, more calm then at any other time in my life.

Sokka said he would save me.

I felt myself going, slowly shutting down.  
I was falling asleep, and when I woke up, I'd be on earth again.  
Snozzles would get such a pounding for making me wait so long under water! Didn't I say I couldn't swim?

Moving anymore seemed impossible as I sunk faster into the deep cold water.

I tried to breath, but only water filled my mouth and it choked me, it made my head pound, and suddenly my world was becoming hazy and even darker.

He said it was just ice.

He said I was almost there.

He said he would save me.

Sokka lied.


	3. Carried by the Wind

**Dedicated to my "sister", Keitorin Asthore**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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His young, childlike laughter of blissful joy rang through the clear sky as women, men, children, his own father watched nervously from far below.

The bright afternoon sun glinted off the orange protective goggles that were pressed over dark brown eyes and gave everything a warm glow.

With the wind rustling his short and shaggy brown hair that had been messily thrown into a top knot, the cold bit at whatever skin was left exposed.  
What a sensation!

Teo fell in love instantly with the feeling, the second his father helped launch him.

The feeling of true freedom.

The feeling like you're untouchable.

The feeling of weightlessness as he tested the laws of physics.

He, born of the earth, proved the impossible that day.

He flew.

His father tried to explain the science behind it.

He said it was simple gliding, hot air keeping him afloat as he explored the sky; the first to do so in over a hundred years.

Flight, gliding, it was all the same to Teo.

Others quivered and shook their heads, calling his father a fool for believing to be able to ride the wind.

No one wanted to test the invention, being as new as it was.

For if the screws, the nails, the wood, the paper like fabric of the glider, if any of it were to fail…

When Teo volunteered, the community had burst into cries of dismay.

They tried to talk him out of it, saying not to throw away his life.

Thirteen is such a young age to meet your end.

A chuckle of amusement escaped Teo's lips then.

Now there was no one to look down upon him.

Cripple.

Up in sky, everyone would be on equal ground… so to speak.

Cripple.

There were no limits to what he could do!

Cripple.

What use were legs when you were flying.

Cripple.

And oh, how Teo hated that word!

He hated how people would look down at him, not because he was in a wheelchair and his height was reduced.

No.

He hated how his fellow refugees, survivors of a tragic flood, keepers of the Northern Air Temple would look down upon him and think one thing and one thing only.

Cripple.

Though there were plenty of children to play with, he had no invitation.

When he'd wheel to them, asking to join the fun, they'd hide their faces and run.

Embarrassment.

They were embarrassed for him.

They were embarrassed he was a cripple.

They didn't want to hurt his feelings, Teo knew and understood that.

But when they'd run away, understanding did not make it hurt any less.

Cripple.

He was no such thing.

Teo was slightly different.

Bandages wrapped around his useless legs.

In a wheelchair, day in and day out, Teo sat.  
But he refused to think of himself as a cripple.

And in the sky, the word never existed.

There were no need for legs when you were flying.

Teo grinned to heavens above.

His brain buzzed in happiness, and the sun warmed his cheeks.

And like a storm, the crack broke like thunder.

Teo's heart began to pick up speed.

Crack.

The sound, so quiet yet it seemed to pound in Teo's ears.

Crack. Rip.

A thin separation, almost invisible, in the glider's milky white wings above his head.

Rip.

A small beam of sunlight filtered in through the slit, and poured panic in Teo's blood.

Crack.

A nail breaking loose from the wood that held the specially made glider to his wheelchair.

Crack. Rip.

A deadly combination.

Teo searched frantically for the Northern Air Temple, a countdown beginning.

Crack. Rip.

Seconds began to fade.

And his stomach dropped and his body became as paralyzed as his legs.

So caught up in the moment of freedom, of flying, he drifted from the Temple.

He could see his father, standing slightly distant from the observing crowd.

Teo opened his mouth to shout.

"Dad, my gli-"

Crack!  
The nail popped loose and wood snapped, sending splinters flying in every direction.

It hit Teo in the arms, the face and he tried to shout again.

The left wing of the glider broke off and sent Teo into a terrifying spin.

Suddenly, he couldn't tell if he was falling up or down.

The wind captured his breath, refusing to let him cry in terror.

Dizzying confusion as the world spun in endless circles...

_They say your entire life flashes before your eyes._

For Teo, there was no time.

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**Author Note:** I am truly sorry for the long delay for this chapter. I had begun writing this about a month ago, excited... a little depressed as I am when I write for this series, but excited just the same. I got about half way through the first draft, when I looked over at my Anole Lizard. He was dead. Now, normally I would have grieved for a moment, accepted this as the circle of life, then continued to write. But my lizard's name was Teo, and yes, he was named after the Avatar character above. Now you understand why I had put off writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed and please reply with requests and ideas for future chapters. That'd be awesome and a big help!


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